Macbeth Elements vs MI Elements

Published on Mar 3, 2016 Dudadius

"Patch Notes:

In reality, this video is more an exploration of the Macbeth Elements than a head-to-head smackdown. The Mutable Instruments Elements is just used as a counter melody, really. But as the naming controversy was brewing right as I ordered the Macbeth two years ago (worth the wait!), I knew that once I received it, a patch featuring the two Elements would be the first thing I do.

This patch is driven by the Monome Teletype, being triggered by Monome Meadowphysics. There are two sequence rows in the tracker, one for sending note data to each Elements. Other scripts are altering the length and some of the notes of each sequence at counted intervals, triggered by other rows of MP (Scripts are shown at 11:06, if you’re interested).

Monome White Whale is triggering the percussion. Things get a little wobbly at one point, as Meadowphysics starts dividing outside of the beat, but never mind… Audio Damage Neuron is going through a Mutable Instruments Clouds (sorry, Chris, hehe) for a little granular beat variety. And the hat is Noise Engineering Ataraxic Translatron through an Intellijel Polaris. There’s a touch of Modcan Dual Delay on the latter. All mixed through Cwejman MX4S and Intellijel Dubmix.

The Macbeth really is special. It of course has the ‘sound’ many of you know and love of Ken’s instruments (to me, big and organic) but it’s the arrangement of controls that turns it into a real instrument that begs to be played. That’s what I tried to feature here. I switch from filter mode B to A at 8:36, so you can hear the difference. I can’t recall the difference between the two modes now, because I know Ken played with a lot of variations, but they each have their own sweet spots, with the A mode have a more gradual cutoff slope. The interaction of the spring reverb and the tape delay simulator brings a ton of vibe to the table, for sure.

Anyway, fantastic work Ken, I feel lucky to have an Elements! Of course, I always love Olivier’s devilishly clever and deep modules as well. Enjoy!"